The King's Reluctant Lover: Fanelia
by Jav-chan
Summary: The freedom that she nearly died for is now Hitomi's to claim, but if she ever thought that for one moment Van would let her live some quiet life as an outcast then she was sadly mistaken. Part Two of The King's Reluctant Lover.
1. Prologue

**The King's Reluctant Lover  
Fanelia**

**Prologue**

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**I'm sure some of you might be going WTF?! with a second KRL story. Please read the author notes in the final chapter of KRL: Asturia.**

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_It's been too long_. She thought as she eyed the dress that Merle had brought in with a haughty twitch of her tail. She liked the mountain tigre girl, or at least she wished she did. She recognized a lot of what she had loved about Naria and Eriya. If only she could get past the other woman's hatred for her, then things might be better.

Merle had every reason to hate her.

Rising from the chaise she approached the gown that had been draped carefully over her bed. It had indeed been much too long. Far too long since she had felt that loathing that a part of her reserved for long cumbersome skirts, finery, and polite manners.

The gown was pretty enough she supposed. It was decorated with pieces of white and yellow gold that was encrusted with expensive jewels and was a beautiful deep green. Personally, Hitomi didn't care for green, even if it did go well with her complexion and brought out her eyes. She could feel her temper rising as she continued to study the dress that Van had apparently _suggested_ she wear.

It was perfect for a king's consort.

At the moment she was trying very hard to _not_ think of five different ways to maim the Fanelian king. After all he had been kind enough to give her residence in his castle (even though she would have preferred to stay in Freid with Duchess Marlene), and he was going to so much trouble to help her get back some semblance of normalcy after nearly a year of chaos.

She had hope though, that after their talk, he would have shown a little bit of tact.

Moving to her dresser, she felt under the jewelry box for the dagger she kept there. She smirked at the feel of the cool metal. At least this was one that Merle and Balgus would never be able to find. As she looked at the dagger in her hand to the bejeweled dress a wicked grin crossed her face.

It was high time Van Fanel learned that she wasn't some doll to dress up and stand by his side.

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**Well, this only took forever to get out. I hope you look forward to the second part. Those of you have been frustrated with how things have been progressing between Van and Hitomi should be pleased. Regretfully, Dilly will not make an appearance until the very end.**


	2. Twist & Turns

**The King's Reluctant Lover  
Fanelia**

**Chapter One  
Twist & Turns**

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Her eyes fluttered open slightly, but Van knew that she wasn't really seeing him by the blankness in her emerald eyes. Something in him twisted at each soft whimper of pain that escaped her. Hitomi was no longer thrashing as she had been earlier when he had managed to get over to her and, at the very least, she had to be on the edge of consciousness. He pulled her closer to his chest as he stood up.

The palace's regular guard had filtered into the dancing hall and he understood Allen's dislike for them. The Caeli Knight had never spoken very highly of the guard and before Van had always dismissed it as him being his usual egotistical self. The noise was annoying enough as it was, and he could hope that it wasn't enough to cause Hitomi further aggravation.

She was much too limp, and seemed to nearly sag against him. If it wasn't for the fact that there was something about the scream that had escaped her only a moment ago that chilled his blood then he would have not hesitated to hunt down Dilandau. As it was he had no choice but to add it to the ever growing list of just why the Dragon Slayer deserved Maximum Torture before death. He wouldn't have dared to go after either of those tigres, and he made a mental note to talk to both Dryden and Merle about the twins at a later date.

Right now, though, his primary concern was finding Millerna.

XXX

_Everything was so loud. So unbearably loud. It abraded her nerves raw and if her throat didn't feel as if it was bleeding and if she had more energy she __would__ ha__ve__ gladly given voice to the agony._

_Never had the pain— had the vision— been this bad. _

_The images were nonsensical and she was seeing things that she could hardly understand. One moment she thought she saw herself, hair braid__ed__ into neat pigtail__s__ with a colorful pinwheel in one hand, standing alone on an icy terrain. No. She wasn't alone. There was an older man that was stumbling towards her, dripping blood. Something about him seemed familiar._

_It switched to something else, but the sight in front of her was horribly blurred and it was only when live flames were licking at her arms and legs that she was able to make sense of anything._

_Tears streamed down her cheeks and she wanted to scream. She wanted to scream until there was nothing left. Scream until the pain that was threatening to rip her apart was gone._

_By the Goddess, she didn't want to feel anymore!_

_Why couldn't she just die?_

XXX

It was only the feel of the hilt of his blade beneath his fingers that was keeping him sane. Pride kept him from pacing around in the receiving room of Millerna's private quarters. Princess Eries had started to protest about the impropriety of men even being anywhere near the rooms of the princess, but one stern glare from her elder sister silenced any further objections. Nearly everyone that he was allied with was waiting in the room and it grated on his nerves in no small manner.

Her sudden convulsions scared him.

There had been no warning. When the whimpers had stopped he had assumed that she was finally unconscious enough that she could no longer feel pain. He certainly didn't expect, as he walked closer to Allen, for her body to stop start jerking wildly. He had nearly dropped her.

Dryden and Millerna had pushed their way through the suddenly gathering crowd, as Allen helped him set Hitomi on the floor as gently as possible. Suddenly the princess changed, shouting out orders to her fiancé and the surrounding Caeli Knights. She had knelt by the other woman's side, checking Hitomi's vitals as best she could.

She had muttered something about the best thing they could do for her was to keep her head elevated and the area clear of all objects, but that had all changed when Millerna had checked her pulse. She had paled and another curt order had found him and Allen carefully carrying her up to the princess' private rooms. She had only allowed Marlene and an old nurse to stay in the room after they had set Hitomi on the bed.

Van had been more than a little surprised to see Dryden, Gaddess, and Duke Mahad. Mahad's expression had been especially concerned. There had been an emotion in his eyes when they flicked over to Van that the Fanelian hadn't quite been able to read, and he tried not to think about it too much. He just needed to know.

What was happening to Hitomi?

XXX

_She was vaguely aware of a cool, comforting hand pressing to her forehead, but it was hardly enough to numb the pain. She was quite certain that even if she was submerged in the ocean waters of the frozen lands in the North that the agony would still be fresh. She was so tired, so very, very tired._

_She felt wetness on her cheek as she was present__ed__ with another nonsensical vision. They had stopped making sense a while ago, shortly after the flames had stopped licking at her arms and legs. Liquid continued to fall from her eyes and she knew from the pain alone that it wasn't tears. Even though she couldn't see it, she knew the color was scarlet._

_The flames were gone now, but the blur of colors hurt and __in__ the way it felt as if her very nerves were on fire she knew something was wrong._

XXX

The sun had just started to rise when the two sisters emerged from Millerna's sleeping room, but looking exhausted and unsteady on their feet. Marlene hobbled over to her husband, resting her cheek on his chest when his arms wrapped around her. Seeing the simple act that was filled with such tenderness Van had to look away. He wanted nothing more than to hold Hitomi at that moment, even after considering how impractical and improper it would be. She was a lady from the country of his enemy and she was so damn confusing!

Yet, none of this changed that _something_ that he felt around her. It was that something that outweighed the many questions that kept him awake at night.

It was the fear that she was still convulsing, that her face was still contorted in pain and not knowing what the cause of it was, that kept him still.

Millerna moved over to Gaddess and Allen, speaking to them in hushed tones. Even though he knew that what she was saying concerned Hitomi he hardly took notice. He could only stare slack jawed at the blood that spotted the front of her bodice. Despite the question that was threatening to burst free, Van kept his silence and remained rooted to the same spot he had been at the past several hours, the hand curled around the hilt of his sword nearly cramping with the force that he kept it closed.

He forced himself to wait quietly as the princess finished talking with Allen. When she finally did step away from the two knights and turned to Van, her expression still serious, something was fairly itchy underneath his skin begging him to do _something. _

"Lord Van."

For a moment he wondered at her formality before realizing that they had never really been formally introduced. He nodded before stepping to the side so that she would at least have access to the chair next to him.

"Your Highness." He murmured as she sank into the chair, the look on her face one of relief. Somehow he couldn't bring himself to ask that simply question: was Hitomi alright?

It was times like this that he was extremely grateful for the innate and understanding nature that seemed to be an inherit part of the disposition of the fairer sex. He searched the Asturian's heir's face for the answer to his unspoken question, and it was only at that moment that he actually noticed the lines of exhaustions and tension at the corners of her mouth and eyes.

Her blue eyes studied him a little expectantly, and he knew what she was waiting for. Ever the stubborn Fanelian, Van kept his mouth shut. Millerna had seemed genuinely worried about Hitomi, and from what he had heard from the Duchess, the youngest daughter of King Aston didn't exactly approve of her father's position as far as Zaibach was concerned.

Which certainly made her concern for Hitomi all the more curious.

The only conclusion that he could come to was that, possibly, the two women had found some sort of common ground. They had found something that they could relate on, and because of it they had found some level of comradery—or as his mother once put it, he thought with a grimace, bosom companions. Bosom companions…something that went beyond the simple friendships and sense of belonging into something that no male could possibly understand.

It was enough to make a king nervous.

Millerna let out an irritated sigh as she leaned back in her chair. "My brother wasn't kidding, was he? You certainly have no intention of making this easy, do you?" She raised an eyebrow, studying him intently.

_Brother?_ The word caused him to frown. To his knowledge Aston had never had any…then he noticed how her eyes flicked over to Mahad and he felt incredibly stupid. _Ah, yes._ Of course, after all, the Duke had married her sister.

Why did relationships have to be so complicated?

"I'm worried, Van." She said finally, after a rather uncomfortable silence had spread between them, the informality with which she addressed him a surprise. "I've never seen anything like this before. Her body is a complete mess. Frankly, I can't believe that she was able to fight off those brutes when you came across us in that alley a couple of days ago." Her lips curled up slightly when she noticed how his eyes seemed to darken with the memory. "I know that she's complained about headaches before, and I took her to my old teacher to give her some medication to try to help but…" Millerna shook her head, her golden curls shaking. When she looked back up at him her expression was serious. "I don't know what it was that Lord Albatou gave her but it's causing her immense agony, and nothing I've done seemed like it can stop it. If we don't stop it soon she may die."

It would have been a lie if Van were to say that he was completely surprised by that declaration. All too vividly he remembered watching Hitomi as she stubbornly trudged through one of the seedier parts of Pallas, foolishly clothed in her finery. Her emerald eyes had been glazed with something that he hadn't understood at the time, but he now recognized it as pain. Soft whimpers had occasionally escaped her as he followed her—_stalked her_, Gaddess had helpfully supplied later— and she had given such a horrible shuddering breath at one point that it had taken all of his restraint not to sweep her into his arms.

Hitomi was entirely too stubborn for her own good, that was what he had originally thought the first time that he had come across her, and it seemed that the same stubbornness might—

It was quickly becoming rather difficult to breathe. It was even harder to speak.

"What can we do?" It took him several tries to actually force the words out.

Millerna shook her head, her expression hopeless. "This is beyond my area of expertise. She complained quite frequently about a 'damnable tonic'—her words not mine," she said quickly when Van gave her a rather strange look, "that they forced her to drink. Supposedly it induced visions."

"Visions?" He echoed, his eyes wide. Even the rite to become king wasn't as bizarre as something like that.

"Yes. She told me she knew you before she ever came to Asturia." The princess smiled wryly at Van's expression. "She said she knew you even before—"

"Before what?"

"Sorry, Van." She shook her head. "It's not my place to say. You'll have to ask her."

_What if she doesn't survive? Will you tell me then? _He couldn't even force the words out and the very thought caused ice to lodge in his gut. _Can I see her? _Despite the blood that stained Millerna's dress he still couldn't find the words to ask that question.

"That's really not the problem though…"

"What do you mean?"

"My father." Her eyes went to the floor and she bit her bottom lip. "He's going to be a problem. I'm sure that we've already received demands from Lord Dilandau requesting that we relinquish Hitomi to them."

Just as quickly, that that cold feeling in his stomach vanished at the mention of that bastard's name. His lips curled back in a snarl and all he could see was Hitomi and Dilandau as he had last seen them before the dancing hall had completely erupted in chaos. He could see that bastard pressing Hitomi hard against the stone column, _touching_ her intimately, _kissing_ her.

He could still hear her screams.

XXX

If the crown princess was unimpressed with his rather violent reaction to the mere mention of the Zaibach dignitary she didn't let it show. She merely raised an eyebrow and turned her attention away from him. If the Fanelian king was going to act like this every time she mentioned the word Zaibach then it was going to be a long night and Millerna wasn't entirely sure that she had the patience for it. She glanced over at her fiancé and was pleased to see that he had finally stepped away from the Duke. A little grudgingly she realized that she was thinking of him as her betrothed, regardless of how her father had practically forced him on her, and it seemed more and more appealing.

Discovering that he did not share the same love of Zaibach as her father did was certainly one of them, and that fact alone was enough to make her want to be a little more civil to him. Millerna fought the urge to shake her head at the thought. Right now was certainly not the time to be thinking of such matters. Even without Lord Dilandau's meddling she wasn't entirely sure that Hitomi would survive the night. It all depended on what her old teacher would be able to do once he got here. Not for the first time, she cursed her old fashioned father and elder sister. It really wasn't fair. As Freid's Duchess, Marlene was able to help her people in ways that the Asturian King would not approve of if he knew—regardless of whether or not he had a say in the matter—yet Eries and her father had forced her to give up her medicinal studies. If it wasn't for that then she would probably be able to do more for Hitomi besides stop the bleeding as best as she could.

She barely managed to catch herself in time from smiling when Dryden approached her. _Really,_ she chided herself,_ it's because of men like him and Father that__ I__ am forced to learn how __to __embroider instead of studying about things that are actually useful. _Hoping that she had schooled her expression back into a scowl that she generally reserved for him, she waited until he was close enough that he was nearly touching her. She directed the full force of her scowl on him as if to say _well?_

To say that she was more than a bit insulted when he completely ignored her and addressed Van was an understatement.

Van watched his ally, trying to school his expression into some sort of neutral expression as the merchant spoke.

"Van, it appears that Zaibach's ambassadors," he smirked slightly at the way Van's lip curled at the mere mention of Dilandau, "is being much more insistent than we had originally anticipated. Regretfully, His Majesty seems rather willing to comply with their demands."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It means that unless we make arrangements, and make them soon, then Dilandau will be taking Lady Hitomi back to Zaibach." Dryden's dark eyes narrowed, as if he was just struck by a rather unpleasant thought. "I highly doubt that she will survive the journey."

Van glanced down at Millerna and the way she was refusing to meet his eyes gave him the distinct feeling that there was something that she wasn't completely telling him.

"Mi-ght not survive?" He was thankful that Marlene and Mahad were the only ones left in the room. Allen would have never let him live it down if he had heard the way his voice caught. "What do you mean? Princess Millerna, you said that she—"

"If she's taken to Zaibach it will not be her fault that she dies."

"Dilandau?" He spat the name out as if it was the most vile of poisons.

"I won't know for sure until I have my old teacher confirm some suspicions, but it appears that the tonic that Hitomi had been complaining about for the past few days has been wreaking havoc upon her body. I think there has to be some level of toxicity in whatever it was that they're giving her to force those visions and that each time she consumed it, it was slowly eroding away her body. If they are able to force her to drink any more of it before her body has a chance to recover then she will not survive the next time."

"How can we stop them?" Van really didn't care for being left out, and he had a very distinct feeling that nearly everyone else knew something that he didn't. Millerna, at least, knew whatever it was and appeared to have the intention of giving him the option of avoiding talking to Hitomi and that was fine with him. He would prefer to hear the answers directly from Hitomi anyways.

Of course, that would be bloody near impossible if she died.

The look on both Millerna's and Dryden's face was nearly identical in its exasperation. Van merely returned the gaze with a glare. His head was too full for him to think about the finer details of something that should have been so simple. The golden-haired princess shook her head, smiling faintly, as she cast a sidelong look at her fiancé and the young Fanelian was suddenly struck by how much more comfortable she seemed to be around the merchant. He wasn't foolish enough to think that she had fallen in love with his ally, but there was a softness to her that he had never noticed before that almost looked like she was finally seeing Dryden for the first time.

"Van," Dryden finally said, dryly, "can you honestly think of no other way or _country_ for Lady Hitomi to find sanctuary with?"

Van scowled. Of course, he could. He wasn't a complete twit, but he just didn't want to give word to it otherwise that strange feeling that was forming in his gut might almost be considered _hope._

Unfortunately, as he studied Dryden's bland face, the king was of the most distinct impression that the merchant was going to give him little choice in the matter.

"You want me to take an ambassador from Zaibach into Fanelia. You want me to take the woman—" try as he might Van was unable to summon the appropriate amount of contempt to color his voice, "—who led the Dragon Slayers and told them how to attack my home. You want me to take her and offer her shelter in _my_ city?"

The corner of Dryden's mouth half kicked up into a sort of wry grin, as if he was amused by the lack of real conviction in the Fanelian's voice.

"Considering that you have already saved her on more than one occasion I did not think it would be such a tall order." His dark eyes studied the brash king over his spectacles. "Besides there is a great deal more to this than you know. Regretfully," he continued quickly when Van opened his mouth to demand to know just what else it was that was at stake, "as my princess said before, that is something that you will need to discuss with Lady Hitomi. Maybe you should give her the benefit of the doubt, Van. I find it hard to believe that you would so easily dismiss the woman that you went to all the trouble to plan a day that would please her. Think past your prejudices Fanelia, and admit what you really want. What you discover may surprise you."

Personally Van didn't think he had any prejudices. No matter how strange he felt at the thought of her dying, and no matter how he really was unable to completely comprehend her actions in the garden earlier that night, nothing changed the fact that Hitomi Kanzaki was his enemy.

Maybe if he kept telling himself that then one day he might actually believe it.

Dryden stepped away intent on getting back to his fiancé who had left the door to where Hitomi was resting slightly ajar.

Knowing full well that either of the royal couples would continue to be tight lipped he made his way towards the door, stubbornly ignoring the stares that he just_ knew _they were giving him. Stopping only to make sure that the door was firmly closed and locked—if they even thought for a moment that he was going to leave the room if they started making a ruckus and demanding for him to unlock the door then they were going to be severely disappointed He walked towards the bed with it's cream colored sheets and stopped at the foot of it to look at Hitomi.

Her breathing was as harsh as it had been earlier and her skin looked almost unhealthy. He could still see the faint stains of blood that Duchess Marlene had been unable to completely wipe off. The sheet and blankets that covered her trembled slightly with the violent shaking of her body.

Van was hardly aware of the way his eyes softened as he took in her form, and he moved over to the stool that had been placed at her bedside. He didn't reach for her hand, instead he reached out and wrapped a caramel brown curl of hair that had become stiff from hair product, rubbing his thumb against the strands absently. When he spoke it was soft, because while he certainly didn't wish to cause her pain neither was he in the mood to talk to her face to face. At least not yet.

"Who are you, Hitomi?" His gaze rested on her face and her parted lips briefly before he had to look away. He didn't like seeing her so contorted with pain and she was much too pale. Instead he chose to study the way the candle light almost made her hair seem bronze. "I mean who are you really? You have visions. What is it that they gave you…how do you know me? The princess said you've seen me before and I still remember the time you said that to me. I doubt that you do. Remember it, I mean. The others want me to take you and offer you the protection of the Fanelian crown. I want to, it would give me an excuse to be near you, I guess. You certainly would have no choice but to answer my questions. Still…"

His eyes were unseeing as he continued to touch her hair. It was difficult, more so than he had thought it would be to say this to her.

"I don't know if I should trust you. I don't know if I can. You work for Dilandau, for the Empire. You even admitted it to me that your visions are what nearly cost me that village. So many people died that night Hitomi. Do you feel that weight? Do you feel the weight of the hundreds of men that have died because of you? Do you even care?"

It came out harsher than he had intended, but it wasn't like she would ever be able to recall his words. He knew her well enough, at least he liked to think so, that he could confidently say she was affected by the men the Dragon Slayers had massacred that night.

Yet, there were too many questions he needed to ask her when she finally awoke, and he was much too uncertain of what her response would be.

He couldn't find any more words, but the silence that filled the room—disturbed only by her harsh breathing—was not unpleasant.

It wasn't until he heard the familiar sounds of commotion and heavy armor that he stood up to leave. He paused when a whimper reached his ear and turned to look back at Hitomi, surprised to see her suddenly curled into a ball. Turning back to the door he released the lock and stepped out into the main receiving room.

He recognized the gleaming armor with the royal crest of King's Aston's personal guard. Squaring his shoulders, he waited until the leader spoke before stepping forward. A fierce rage heated his blood, and his hand went to the hilt of his sword.

"You will not touch her."


	3. Knife's Edge

The King's Reluctant Lover  
Fanelia

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Chapter Two  
Knife's Edge

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Van ignored the shouts of those around him as he climbed into his guymelef. They couldn't stop him anyway. He had already talked to Allen and the commander of the Crusade had agreed him this reprieve. Besides they had already passed the mountain border that seperated Fanelia and Asturia so he technically wouldn't be in any sort of violation of the agreement that Aston had finally submitted to.

For all of the fact that Fanelia didn't have the capability that Asturia did when it came to importing and exporting goods, they had enough strength in allies and military might that the Asturian King had been wary enough to not openly declare the mountain Kingdom an enemy.

He climbed into Escaflowne before Kio was even halfway down the stairs. The guymelef's hatch popped open with a hiss and Van didn't hesitate. Already he could hear Gaddess shouting to hurry up and close the damn hatch before he was able to start moving.

Unfortunately for the crew of the Crusade, Escaflowne was an Ispano guymelef and they weren't built quite on the same par as regular guymelefs. It took only seconds for him to slide his arms into the slots, and by then he was moving his legs and Escaflowne was moving towards the exit. The heavy, royal blue material that made up the guymelef's cape flowed wildly as he took the first halting steps forwards. The grinding of gears was familiar and Van found an odd sort of comfort in it.

By the time the groaning and shrieking of metal came as Kio worked furiously to close his one avenue of escape, the grey steel of the ship's interior was at the very edges of his line of sight. All that Van could see before him was the unending, unblemished blue of a clear midday sky. He took the one step that led him over the Crusade's edge and then he was falling. Falling to meet the rivers that glinted in the sunlight and the lush valleys.

For a half a moment Van allowed himself the pleasure of absorbing the breathtaking view that he was so seldom treated with. Then his fingers were clenching, twisting, and manipulating the proper sequences that would allow the change. A small puff of steam escaped Escaflowne as its legs fell down and out, becoming one until they formed a tail. The white mechanical wings were outstretched and the material of the guymelef's cloak became the webbing for the wings that allowed Van to catch the updraft as Escaflowne's neck sprouted out with a hiss, sounding more like the roar of a land dragon, and suddenly the cold currents of wind were pulling his hair in every which direction. The sun obscured his vision, and he needed to blink several times before he could see properly again.

Van couldn't stop grinning.

He pulled back the two handles that were attached to the thick cables manipulating the guymelef's wings, and suddenly Escaflowne was soaring high above the Crusade and it was in that moment that the young King was able to forget all of his troubles. He was able to forget the burdens of his duties, the confusing woman with the labored breath who slept in Allen's quarters, and to forget about the possible repercussions that Zaibach could force from King Aston.

There was nothing but the blue sky and the valley beneath him and that awe inspiring sense of pure and unadulterated _freedom. _

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_The __Captain__ of King Aston's personal guards looked faintly displeased about something. Whether it was because he found it distasteful that there were so many men in a princess' private chambers or if it was his own presence that bothered the guard Van didn't know. Personally he didn't care, but he didn't think for a moment that the look of displeasure was because the man found his current orders to be distasteful in the least._

_Crossing his arms in front of his chest, Van positioned himself so that he was standing directly in the doorway. He briefly glanced over at Allen, Dryden, and Mahad to try and gauge the situation. Although Dryden had a rather pleasant smile on his face as he stood by his fiancé's chair there was a distinct edge to that smile that the Fanelian had only seen once or twice. He wondered if any __of __Aston's guard had taken note of it and pitied the ones that didn't. _

_Except for the bastard that stood in front of Van. The __Captain__ deserved whatever scathing tongue lashing that Dryden was gifted at giving out whenever the situation called for it. _

_The Duke of Freid looked downright hostile as he regarded the men who protected his father-in-law. _That_ hostility Van didn't quite understand. He knew that there were quite __a number of__ things that Dryden and Mahad were intentionally keeping him in the dark about, and he also knew that he would not be getting a single answer until Hitomi woke up. (He refused to think on the _if_ of that matter.) Still, just like Millerna and Marlene's concern there was something about the blatant hostility that just didn't quite add up._

_Contrary to the two men that far outranked him, Allen's expression was neutral and revealed nothing. The Caeli Knight would be of no help, but given his situation Van supposed that he couldn't expect too much. After all, Allen's position as a knight—no matter how high an honor it was—simply did not give him the same freedoms to express his displeasure with his sovereign._

_Van returned his attention to Aston's __Guard Captain__ and glared at the man. It was obvious that Dryden and Mahad would come to his help if he needed it, but he had a distinct impression that this was his problem to deal with, and he would be judged accordingly depending upon how it turned out._

"_Your Majesty." Although the Captain bowed respectfully, Van didn't miss the way his lips twitched unpleasantly as he spoke. At least now he knew the Captain's earlier look of displeasure had been directed at him and not the overtly male presence in Millerna's rooms. _

_Which was perfectly fine with Van. After all, his Draconian bloodline had awarded him more than a few glares of contempt from the aging members of his father's former counsel who knew where his mother had come from. It was certainly nothing new._

_The sharp smile the Fanelian __King__ gave the other man probably could have been considered feral for all of the teeth it showed._

"_Please step aside, Your Majesty."_

"_Is that an order?" A strange sort of furious calm had settled into his nerves, allowing Van to relax with __a __deceptive__ly__ casual__ posture__. As he watched the slight surprise that flickered briefly in the other man's eyes he found himself not caring at the possibility that he would possibly have to worry about another public front to the war. He was quite certain that Balgus wouldn't care. If anything his general would notice the value in being able to claim Dornkirk's new pet as a hostage._

_Something in that thought left Van feeling a bit sour, but he was forced to push that and the excuses that he was mentally organizing for his general (who was really more like a nagging aunt that he never wanted) when the entire Guard took a step closer to him in uniformed synchronicity. _

"_I apologize Fanelia," Van went still at the absolute rudeness in that way that he was addressed, "but it is King Aston's orders that the lady be returned to her country."_

"_What if she doesn't want to go?" When the Duke spoke his voice was much too soft, and it even made Van __slightly __nervous. _

_The look on the face of Aston's guard__ Captain__ was one of utter incomprehension. It was almost as if it was completely impossible for the man to comprehend why anyone _wouldn't_ want to go back to Zaibach._

"_It doesn't matter." He said, finally. "I have my orders."_

_Van's cinnamon eyes narrowed down to pinpricks. Obviously, nearly the whole of the Asturian palace knew exactly who he was. Did this fool really think that he could order a __King__ to surrender so easily?_

"_That's too bad. That woman is under my…protection." Something about saying the word left an unpleasant taste in his mouth, and he wasn't completely sure if it was merely because Hitomi belonged to Zaibach's Kanzaki clan. "Unless, you want to declare Asturia as Fanelia's enemy in his steed then you will do well to relay that to His Majesty." Unfolding his arms, Van rested one hand on the hilt of his sword, taking great care to finger the crest of Fanelia._

_The Captain's eyed widened a fraction at the threat._

_

* * *

_

It didn't take long for Van to lose the Crusade. The sun glinted off of the ship's metal siding and he made sure not to lose sight of it. He never got a chance to go to the border that separated Asturia and Fanelia and he didn't know these mountains and the skies as well as he would have liked. The last thing he needed was the embarrassment of getting lost in his own country.

_Again._

The wind had more of a bite than he expected, but he enjoyed the way it seemed to cut through his bare arms and down to his bones. Pulling on the handles he guided his guymelef towards a nearby lake. As long as he didn't lose sight of the Crusade it wouldn't be a problem. Besides he knew that Dilandau wasn't the type of man to let something silly like politics get in the way of what he wanted.

Just the thought of what he knew Dilandau was capable of and what he could possibly do to Hitomi if ever got his hands on her made Van's mouth go dry and had him listening with sharper ears.

* * *

_It didn't take long for King Aston and his aide to be summoned. Meiden Fassa. Van's lip curled in disgust. For all that he respected Dryden's shrewd mind and what the young merchant could offer as an ally, something about the elder Fassa made his blood run cold. In retrospect it wasn't that all dissimilar to the feeling he got when he allowed himself to stop and think about the fact that Aston still refused to make a stand against Zaibach. _

_He didn't fancy ever dealing with the merchant country as an enemy. He knew that if it ever came to a choice that Allen would choose his country over his allies, but he couldn't fault the knight for that._

_He still wished that he knew exactly w__h__ere Aston stood on the matter._

_The Asturian __King__ was, simply put, an opportunist. As a sovereign Van could appreciate Aston's reasoning. After all many countries had been laid to waste for daring to go against Dornkirk. Although Asturia could hardly be called weak in terms of military strength__,__ its armies were nothing when compared to Fanelia's. All it would take was a well planned attack and Asturia would be crushed._

_If Zaibach had Hitomi back in their possession then it appeared that such a feat would be a rather simple thing to accomplish. _

_

* * *

_

Besides the rustling of the wind as he glided through the air there were no strange sounds. None of the abrasive hums that Zaibach's guymelefs made as they sped through the air, no sound of the whirling blades of a pursuing airship. Even a flying fortress that employed the new stealth that his allies were desperate to get their hands on couldn't catch them. Those things were too cumbersome and So. Ridiculously. Slow. Outside of being a good place to store supplies on the battlefield they really didn't seem to be of much use.

The sun was setting faster than he had expected, Van realized after he finished one more expanded circuit around the Crusade. The edges of the horizon were getting that rusty, orange color that sometimes made the sky look as if it were on fire. They probably wouldn't be arriving at the castle until after the sun had set.

Nearly two hours had passed since he had escaped from the airship on his guymelef and he had only _almost_ lost sight of the Crusade twice. He wasn't so worried any more about getting lost. The small lake that passed below him was familiar and he knew these mountains. On horseback it was about five hours away. Although Escaflowne was faster, traveling in an airship still saved them about three hours. The castle would just be finishing the preparation for the evening meal by the time they arrived and that would be convenient.

It wasn't until his arms were starting to feel numb and that the tips of his fingers were starting to prick with a needle-like coldness that he decided to finally head back. The last thing he wanted was to be chastised by Allen for staying out long enough to get sick.

* * *

_The look in Aston's beady eyes was shrewd with just a hint of reservation. _

"_Fanelia," He gave a solemn sigh as if this entire situation was nothing more than an extreme inconvenience and Van bristled at the unspoken insult, "what will it take for you to release the girl?"_

_The young __King__ grit his teeth as he considered his choices. It occurred to him suddenly that maybe the Asturia__n__ neutrality wasn't such an inconvenience after all. After all, as he had told the __Captain__ of Aston's personal guard, war wasn't something that this country could afford. _

_Aston could NOT afford to refuse his request._

_The only problem was that, if he did decide to act in a way that forced Aston's hand, there would be problems. Many of the spices and the silks that were popular with his court could only be obtained in Asturia, and the ones that weren't were easily the most affordable here. It would be a simple matter for Fanelia to suddenly find it necessary to cut back on certain things. His people would be forced to ration certain items like other countries did in times of war._

_Not to mention the fact that his advisors were most likely to treat nearly every merchant with abject suspicion._

_Already Van could feel a headache forming._

"_I think we both know, Your Majesty," Van spoke slowly, trying to gauge the atmosphere around him, "that I have no intention of doing so. As I informed your Captain I have given this woman sanctuary, and as such she is under my complete protection."_

"_You would give shelter to a noble from a country that you have formally declared as your enemy? I did not think you susceptible to such madness."_

_Van narrowed his eyes. "I owe this woman a great deal." There was more truth to those words than Van liked to admit. "I owe her my life. At her own risk she saved me from an assassination attempt which, it should be noted," He held Aston's gaze and fervently hoping that he wasn't making a mistake, "that your own soldiers failed to prevent. An attempt that was done by a man that was brought into this country from Zaibach as an ambassador, as a negotiator, despite the destruction that both he and his men are responsible for. That alone makes me question your own judgment, King Aston. You push that even further by suggesting that Lady Hitomi would be safe in the hands of her countrymen." _

_The King's pudgy face turned the most curious shade of pink. _

"_Princess Millerna has inspected the lady to try and explain her earlier collapse to the best of her ability." The Fanelian made sure to put as much condemnation into his voice as he could to imply that Aston had failed somewhere by refusing to permit his youngest daughter and heir to continue with her studies. Personally, he didn't understand why the King would prevent the princess from learning something that her people could only benefit from. "The Lord Dilandau that you are so anxious to deliver her to is the reason that she lies on that bed unconscious!" Van jerked his head sharply in the direction of the door directly behind him. "He's the reason she's suffering convulsions, and if your daughter is correct," inwardly he winced at how cold and callous his words sounded. He could only hope that Dryden's fiancé didn't take it seriously, "it could be killing her."_

_

* * *

_

A simple manipulation of the handles and catching an underdraft of air at just the right time had Van near the Crusade in minutes. On an impulse he guided Escaflowne to circle around the rear of the ship, until he was gliding right next to the glass outlook of the pilot's deck. It was nearly empty save for Kio and a few others. Merle was among them, waving enthusiastically and grinning. Her candy red hair bobbed as she pressed closer to the glass to get a better look at him. Van had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep himself from laughing at the way her nose and cheek were squished.

Then the dying sunlight caught on the fair gold of Allen's overly long hair and Van scowled. The Caeli Knight's crystal blue eyes were narrowed down in obvious disapproval, and his arms were crossed over his chest. He shook his head, somehow managing to seem unbearably condescending with such a simple act. Van was hard pressed to resist the childish urge to stick out his tongue in retaliation. Who the hell did Allen think he was? Who did he think he was dealing with?

They weren't in Asturia anymore, and he couldn't just order Van around and tell him what to do. _Especially_ not within the borders of his own Kingdom.

If it wasn't for the fact that the wind was getting noticeably colder as the sun started to sink behind the mountains then he would have been quite content to stay outside of the airship on Escaflowne. The chastising that he was almost certain to get from Balgus didn't matter at all.

Maybe it was the fact that Allen had that sort of annoying aloofness that was inherit in those that were so certain that they knew better then everyone else, but there was something about the knight that, despite the fact that he was a good friend and ally, that Van always found himself fighting the urge to do the exact opposite of what Allen said he should do.

Which, perhaps, was why Van was rather thankful that he didn't deal with Allen as often as he could have.

Smirking at Merle who still waved at him enthusiastically, Van flicked his wrist and glided on a light current that led his guymelef to the underbelly of the Crusade.

* * *

_Van's eyes flicked over to Meiden who snorted at his words. There was a shuffling sound to his left and he didn't doubt for a moment that someone was only just able to restrain their outrage at that response. He had always thought that if anyone had ever implied that he was being over dramatic, even though the implication was unspoken, Van __believed t__hat he would have difficulty handling the insult._

_It was quite __a __strange thing, this almost cold calm that he was suddenly experiencing._

_Even King Aston seemed a little nervous at the look in the young King's eyes._

"_When taking all of these things into account Your Majesty, my courses of action are limited. You can either relinquish her to me as per our alliance__, or__ I will take her from here by force. I don't fancy breaking the amicable relationship between our two countries, but I will not permit her to be taken back to her homeland only to be tortured. As you stated yourself, Fanelia is at war with Zaibach. What Lady Hitomi did earlier was nothing short of treason. I don't fancy having a woman's death on my conscience, especially not when there __is__ something that I could do to prevent it."_

"_So regardless of what I propose you will insist on taking Emperor Dornkirk's ambassador back with you."_

"_At least I have the assurance in knowing that she will be safe from harm." Van was firm on the matter as he uncrossed his arms. _

_

* * *

_

Surprisingly, there was no one waiting for him when he shifted Escaflowne from its dragon form. The hatch slid open with the effortless puff of steam and then Van was sliding out of the lightly cushioned seat, jumping from his guymelef's bent leg and then onto the floor. It was perfectly fine with him if Allen decided to stay away, and if the rest of the crew were far too busy to mess with him then so much the better.

In fact that worked just perfectly with his plans.

When it pertained to dealing with Zaibach and other such matters he had no problem following Allen's advice. As much as it chaffed there was no denying that the Schezar had a considerable amount of experience. Besides, Balgus trusted Allen and greatly valued his advice. It was one of the reasons why Van let Allen and Dryden arrange all the details whenever he needed to go to Asturia to glean what information he could about Zaibach's intentions with the merchant country. It was also one of the reasons why he decided to take the Caeli Knight's suggestion that they take the longest route to the capital.

However, the knight poking his perfectly straight nose where it wasn't needed or wanted was not something that Van was inclined to tolerate.

He certainly didn't understand exactly why it was that Allen needed to get in the way every time he tried to get in the Knight's room to see Hitomi. Van begrudgingly accepted the reasoning that he had been given because, much to his chagrin, Allen's room was the most nicely furnished one in the entire airship and Hitomi needed a place of relevant comfort that she could recover.

That he understood. What the Fanelian King did not understand was why the fair haired knight seemed to have a constant need to interfere with Van's attempts to visit Hitomi. Every time he tried to open the door he was rather politely turned back, sometimes with nothing more than a look, saying that Princess Millerna had given him specific instructions that Lady Hitomi was to have an uninterrupted rest.

Which was rather strange considering Van had received a rather different set of instructions from the princess.

It made him wonder if perhaps there wasn't a bit of deviousness in her.

He certainly had no problems with keeping an eye on Hitomi and making sure that she didn't take a turn for the worst. Of course, he didn't plan on extracting the answers to all of his questions from her right when she woke up, but there was at least one that she could answer. It was only slightly more important than how she knew his brother, never mind the fact that the coward was still alive, but not by a whole lot.

He had been seven when Folken had failed the rite to become King. He had been too young to understand just why, _why_ the elder brother that had taught nearly everything about honor and integrity had been required to undergo the rite of dragon slaying when both parents were still hale and healthy. It would be nearly five years before Van understood his father's unease with the newly crowned leader of a dying country. His father had recognized a threat in the ambitious man who helped his people build new technology that the rest of the countries didn't quite understand. Gaou had wanted his eldest son ready to take his place just in case the unthinkable happened.

Van had always wondered why his brother had never been seen again, and from the reports of sightings of the blue haired prince, rumors had started to circle the Fanelian court. Rumors on how the former crown prince was nothing more than a traitor, a coward. They were certainly unsatisfied that their current King had yet to go through the rite.

His activation of the guymelef through an energist that had been mined from a dragon graveyard was something that many found disgraceful, himself included. The only problem was that there just hadn't been the time. He had been planning to undergo the rite a couple of months ago, but then there had been that massacre along the border and then the discovery of Dornkirk's new pet.

All of which had led him to this.

As soon as he had all of his questions answered and knew a significant amount about Hitomi in order to decide just what to do with her, what her place would be in his country, then Van would undergo the rite.

He just only hoped that Balgus was right in his reassurances that Escaflowne would accept the new blood pact.

* * *

_Aston's expression was one that he was almost painfully familiar with. It was the type that nearly screamed insult due to the absolute bewilderment that was there. He had seen it too many times since his father's death. Too many of Fanelia's allies had been unimpressed with such a young King, and there had been the assumption that his youth would make him weak and thusly susceptible to weakness. The surprise on their faces when the realization dawned that the many strategies that King Gaou was famous for inflicting had been at the insistence of Fanelia's youngest son had been very bitter to swallow. _

_He had been thankful, at least, that his brother's cowardice had made such criticism all the easier to deal with._

_It was strange, how with the concern on what would happen if he dared to react in a naïve manner—the knowledge of what would happen to Hitomi—pushed all of his initial responses to such a reaction to the back of his mind._

_The aging King was quiet and he started to pass the length of his daughter's receiving room in quiet contemplation._

"_Asturia__…__" he finally said, and Van turned to follow his movement if only to try and read the reactions from Dryden and Mahad. "__…__Asturia has always remained neutral on the conflict. Until Zaibach gives us reason not to we will continue to remain so."_

_Van clenched his jaw, gritting his teeth. He would have been lying if he said that the words were completely unexpected, but he still couldn't believe how much death that Aston was content to ignore. Mahad's face was stony, expressionless, he noted, but the way he tucked his wife tighter against his side spoke volumes. Dryden's face was almost pleasant._

_It went unspoken that they all thought the King a fool._

"_However," and there was something grave in the King's voice that had Van looking at him in surprise, "__O__ur alliance with you is something that I do not wish to jeopardize. Your armies provide protection to our merchants and workers when they go to the dragon graveyards for energists, and protect our borders from land dragons. In light of this you will have until sunset tomorrow to cross the border. Transportation will be provided to you. By the time the sun sets tomorrow night I will permit Zaibach to use my harbors to make pursuit if they so wish." _

_

* * *

_

It took very little time to locate the lift that led to the crew's quarters. It took twice as long for the lift to actually start creeping upwards, and the time it took Van to locate Allen's room was even shorter. He felt incredibly smug, and couldn't resist smirking at the fact that the hall was completely empty of human life.

Just a few feet away the lift swayed and rocked, slowly creeping down the cable.

Van reached out for the ridiculously elegant handle of Allen's door. He didn't even have to guess as to who was going to be making their way up here, but by the time Allen even managed to close the lift's gate he would already be inside the room, and he had every intention of locking the door behind him. He couldn't wait until the Crusade was docked. Then there would be nothing Allen could do.

He still didn't understand why the knight was being so damn protective.

Shaking his head, Van turned the handle. Allen had been acting more than just a bit odd lately. His continued refusal to say exactly where the Veshranean heir was being kept was frustrating enough, but what he didn't understand was why Dryden had all of a sudden let the matter drop!

It just didn't make sense.

Almost like the way the damn handle was refusing to turn. Van would have cheerfully cursed the slightly feminine knight in nearly every language that he knew—and even ones he didn't—but someone beat him too it.

"DAMN IT SCHEZAR! LET ME THE HELL OUT OF HERE YOU COCKLESS BASTARD!"

The young King's hand slipped from the elegant handle, his mouth agape at the foul language that continued to come from the other side of the door. While he had no delusions as to who was speaking, he still found it all rather hard to believe.

Van blinked. And blinked once more for good measure. The polished oak, unlike the doors that belonged to the quarters of the rest of the crew, rattled slightly in its hinges before quite suddenly it stopped.

"Damn you, Schezar." She whispered weakly, and Van was worried as to where her sudden burst of energy went. "Let me out."

A heavy sigh came from behind him as metal groaned and the lift's gate was pulled open, and Van just managed to stop himself from whirling around. Instead he managed to step back and turn his head ever so slightly to see Allen pushing a thick lock of his fair hair over his shoulder. The knight frowned at the sight of Van standing there and opened his mouth to say something. On the other side of the door there was an exhausted sigh and the sound of someone sliding against the wall. Van vividly remembered the way Hitomi had slid down the marble column after Dilandau had assaulted her and felt more than just a little bit of worry.

"Give me the key, Allen." He was rather proud of the way his voice sounded and he resisted the urge to hold out his hand like a demanding child.

Allen's crystal blue eyes observed Van for a moment, his mouth twisting into a scowl, before sliding past to study the door.

"Foolish woman," He muttered. "I told you Van, that Her Highness insisted that she get complete and proper rest. What are you doing here?"

Van raised an eyebrow in response. Sometimes he didn't quite understand where the knight got all of his arrogance and how he could be so damn aloof. He had heard tales from Balgus, stories of when his general had trained the young Schezar to be a swordsman worthy of the Caeli Knights. Back then, Allen had been brash and hot headed.

At the moment though, he wasn't entirely unsure that the other man wasn't a masochist.

Maybe he had already anticipated that Hitomi would be far too weak to be able to follow through with any of her threats.

"Let her out, Allen." He ordered, taking perverse pleasure in knowing that he could order the knight around, and by the look on the knight's face he knew it too. "How will she get any rest if she's wasting all of her energy trying to get out of a locked room?" Van didn't bother asking exactly why Allen had bothered to lock her in the room in the first place because he was quite sure that he wouldn't be pleased with the answer.

"You were supposed to give her some space and time to rest Van." The fair haired knight said disapprovingly. "I doubt her Highness will be pleased when she discovers that you were the cause of this—"

"If anyone was the cause of this Schezar then it was you. By the gods, have you even met this woman? Lady Hitomi is hardly the type to just sit around. Besides, she was hardly conscious when she boarded the ship. It's amazing she's actually aware that we don't mean her any harm."

Allen seemed to find some logic in that, at least. Without another word he reached for the silver chain that hung around his neck and rested just underneath his tunic. He undid the chain's clasp and handed the iron wrought key that hung from the end to Van.

The King had expected, at least, to hear some sort of grumble or protest from Hitomi. Again there was that feeling of unease when no sounds were forthcoming. It was only when he was turning the key in the elegant lock that it occurred to Van that he didn't have a damn clue just what he was going to say to her.

Where did they even begin to start? Her saving his life aside, the last conversation they had certainly hadn't ended in the best of ways. Would she be curt and cold to him like she had been then? When he finally turned the handle Van wasn't quite sure just what it was that he expected to find. He knew for a fact that if it hadn't been for Allen's presence behind him then he would come up with some reason, some excuse to delay it.

He had so many questions and suddenly he wasn't quite sure on how to ask them.

With more than a slice of trepidation, Van pushed open the heavy oak door and stepped inside. He blinked, and for a moment the room looked empty. Then he heard the rather labored breathing coming just to his right and he recalled the sound of something sliding. Hitomi's caramel brown hair hung over her shoulders in a wild, tangled disarray. Everything about her posture radiated a bone-deep weariness. She was clad only in a sleeveless tunic and threadbare trousers. He didn't even need to wonder just exactly where she had gotten the obviously masculine clothing, and the distressed sound that came from Allen only confirmed his suspicions.

He was surprised with how sharp her emerald eyes were. In fact the look that she was pinning on Allen was downright murderous and he found himself rather grateful that he wasn't on the receiving end.

"What the hell," Hitomi's voice was strong even though she was still breathing rather heavily as she spoke, "do you think you were doing Schezar? Where are my things? Why did you lock me in your damn room!?" She paused and the expression on her face was puzzled, as if something had just occurred to her. "What am I doing in your room in the first place, and why do you have a vanity?"

Van blinked and turned his head, noticing that there was indeed a glass vanity tucked into one corner of the room complete with strange pots and cilanders, and...was that peach lipstick?

He then shook his head. It really wasn't that important. He glanced at Allen out of the corners of his eyes and wondered just exactly how the knight would provide answers to those rather curious questions.

"Your—Lady Hitomi, you should be in bed."

Van looked at Allen sharply, wondering what it was that the knight had quite suddenly stopped himself from saying.

"So you lock me in your room?!" Hitomi's voice was incredulous as if she was trying to find the logic, but she seemed to take no notice of the fact that her previous question remained unanswered.

"Her Highness and the physician informed me that your strength is severely taxed." Allen continued as if Hitomi hadn't even spoken, and even if it weren't for Van's previous experience he would have known how very bad that was. "It could take weeks for you to recover."

Hitomi half sat up from where she was slumped against the wall, her emerald eyes narrowed into slits. Reaching for a cushioned chair only inches from her she used it for leverage as she struggled to push herself up. Her arms and legs were shaking visibly as she pushed herself, breathing hard. She was leaning heavily against the chair's arm when the fair haired knight moved forward to assist her, something even Van wouldn't have dared to do. Her glare turned positively deadly when she noticed, and her foot suddenly kicked out, catching Allen hard in the shin.

Fortunately for him she was no longer wearing her heeled boots.

Still it was enough to send the knight stumbling back. Van didn't doubt that it was only pride that was keeping Allen from clutching at his shin.

Hitomi was breathing hard by the time she managed to pull herself up to her full height. Van didn't miss the way she gripped the back of the chair as she regarded the two men. She still hadn't quite looked at Van or even acknowledged him and he wondered if this was as difficult for her as it was for him.

"Don't insult me, Schezar. I didn't go through all of that just to have you pamper me." Her lip curled up in disgust. "Certainly not after everything I've been through." At those words Van's uncertainty about how to voice his questions was pushed to the farthest corners of his mind, and he wanted nothing more than to get Allen the hell out of the room so that he could get those answers. "I can certainly survive a bit of exhaustion." Then her eyes flicked over to meet Van's cinnamon ones and he noticed the lines at the corners telling him that she was quite aware she was feeling more than just a bit of exhaustion.

He was pleased to see that the look in her eyes was every bit as uncertain as he had felt earlier, although he wasn't entirely sure on how he felt about how warily she was watching him. Her connections aside, had he ever given her reason to fear him?

It certainly wasn't something he had ever expected from Hitomi.

* * *

_For the longest time Van couldn't quite form the words; his mouth just opened and closed uselessly. What the hell did Aston think he was doing? Was he addled in the head? Did he think by trying to give each side what they wanted that Asturia would come away unscathed? Meiden shifted from his position by the doorway and the slight rustle of clothing was enough to draw Van's attention. He really didn't like the arrogant, almost aloof expression on the elder Fassa's face. There was something about it that made him uneasy. It was as if things were proceeding exactly as he had planned._

_Upon later contemplation Van would realize that his gut reaction to rise to Hitomi's defense was exactly what the elder merchant had been waiting for. It appeared that they had both decided that the easiest way to ride out this war was to cater to both sides._

_It made him sick._

_Casting one more curious over the room and its occupants, King Aston finally left the room in silence. When the door finally clicked shut behind the last guardsman the tension seemed to be released from the room all at once._

"_Van, you should take the Crusade." Dryden said, standing up. _

_The young King scowled. "I can arrange my own transportation."_

"_Not in time for you to get out of the country by sundown tomorrow. Don't be so proud. Allen's ship is probably one of the fastest available and it's already prepped. Or would you trust any of the merchants that would be willing to transport you and Lady Hitomi?" _

_After what had just happened? Not a chance in hell. Personally he would have been more than happy to just use Escaflowne. Airships took too long, but the Crusade was probably the only form of dependable transportation that Hitomi would be able to handle._

"_How soon can you be ready to leave Allen?" _

_If the knight was annoyed that no one had bothered to ask his permission as to whether or not his ship could be used it wasn't noticeable. His fair brow furrowed as he calculated the time it would take for his crew to load the rest of the supplies that were still sitting on the dock._

"_We can be ready to leave within the hour."_

"_Good. As soon as that doctor arrives to look over Hitomi be prepared to leave. I want to be out of here as soon as possible."_

_

* * *

_

The amount of effort that it had actually taken to convince Allen to leave his own quarters was actually surprising little. Hitomi would have liked to have thought that it was because she had managed to successfully intimidate the ass, but the reality of the situation was that she probably looked terrible and as weak as she felt. Her entire body was shaking with the effort that it had taken to drag herself up fully. It probably wasn't the smartest thing she could have done and Hitomi knew that she was going to find herself severely regretting it later.

She had never worried so much about weakness and appearances but her time in Zaibach had taught her that lesson well enough. She had hoped that maybe, once she had escaped, everything would fall into place and she would finally be able to be herself again. She could never go back to being the woman who had stood there on the cliff on the southern most part of the island that she had called home. That woman had been shouldered with too many responsibilities, with the burden of finding a respectable consort. Hitomi had expected, maybe, to regain some of the girl she had been back when the only concerns she had were whether or not her forms would meet Old Man SaDiablo's weakest standards. Now, here she was, watching Van who was just staring at her with the most unreadable of expressions and her heart was aching.

The only problem was that Hitomi wasn't entirely sure if the ache was for everything that she had lost and would never get back, or for the not knowing whether or not he hated her for what he thought she was.

For a moment he just stared at her and for the first time she found herself appreciating just how intense his stare could be. A cinnamon that was dark enough that it wasn't quite brown. She wondered where he had learned to watch a person like that. Did he even know how stoically he was watching her? Hitomi had certainly never ever seen him look at her look in that way before. Even at the ball he had looked at her with more of an uncomprehending curiosity.

Then, quite suddenly, his expression smoothed into something that made her heart convulse curiously.

If she didn't know better she would have called it concern.

Hitomi found herself dumbly accepting the hand that he held out to her. Slowly, almost carefully, he pulled her closer until she was tucked rather firmly against his side. The sudden press of his body against her had her stiffening in reflex. His fingers laced in hers and they were warm. In fact everything about him was warm, but she couldn't quite find enough indignation to remain stiff and upright at his side. Her limbs were shaking too badly, and for a moment she had to fight the impulse to lean her head against his chest.

"Do you need to rest for a while longer?"

Van's voice, Hitomi decided, was something that she would very much like to fall asleep to, and she nearly would have if it wasn't for his words. Instead she squeezed her fingers, pressing her knuckles hard together, and only stopped when he hissed in pain.

"I'll have you know, Van Fanel, that I am perfectly capable of moving around by myself."

"You're shaking."

_Shut up_. She thought venomously, but she didn't dare to say it because it would only have proved him right. If he dared to treat her the same way Allen did then she could not be held responsible for her own actions.

"I'm not staying here, Van. I've been sleeping for who knows how long—"

"Three days."

She scowled. It was no wonder that the thought of slipping under those covers and sleeping away the rest of the trip—wherever they were taking her—made her skin crawl. She needed to walk around, maybe try and shake off that horribly draining feeling of too much sleep. Hitomi just hoped the airship they were on had an observation deck or something of the like. Hitomi turned her head to look at him, only to stop when she succeeded in only looking somewhere in the vicinity of his neck. A neck that was rather deeply tanned. She raised her eyes, allowing herself to study his profile, and was rather surprised at how tense his jaw seemed. It was jutting in that strange way she had seen some of her mother's advisors do whenever her mother was being particularly stubborn. It took her half a moment to wonder just why he would be so tense—she certainly couldn't feel it in the way that he held her—before she realized that maybe he didn't want to be here after all.

Well, she certainly wasn't going to force him to take care of her if he didn't want to.

"You can let me go, Van." She tried to reclaim her hand. It occurred to her that maybe she should address him properly, but even as she tried to form words something in her went sour at the though of acknowledging that he had an authority that she could never touch.

Not any more.

Hitomi scowled when his response was to take her hand into the crook of his arm. Any squishy feelings that she might have felt sizzled out of existence at the almost neutral expression in his eyes. He was watching her carefully, and something felt unpleasant at the thought that he didn't trust her. Which was sadly enough, completely reasonable. After all, she knew that Millerna and Mahad could be trusted to keep her secret, and even Allen wasn't foolish enough to reveal something that she obviously did not want Fanelia to know.

She didn't even know if she could tell him.

It was completely irrational, ridiculous even. Why shouldn't she tell him? What was there that she still had to hide? Yet, whenever she tried to picture just what it was that he would say to her all she could see was that refugee, the young mother. The utter contempt and hatred that she had seen on the woman's face wasn't something she ever wanted to see again.

"If you're not going to rest, Hitomi, then I guess you want to walk around."

"You guessed right." She would worry about how much she was going to tell him later. For now she would just take it as she had taken captivity in the Empire. Just one step at a time that was all she could do. Hitomi started to step away from him and felt more than a just a flash of irritation when he tugged her back. Obviously he was intent on keeping her at his side, and that didn't irritate her as much as it should have.

That was something that she really preferred not to think about too much.

"What in the seven hells do you think you're doing, Fanel?" She growled.

"I hardly think that you would like collapsing in front of the entire crew. Not all of them are as noble as Allen." Van ignored her snort and muttered 'not likely'. "This will at least allow you to keep your dignity. Is there any place you'd like to go?"

"Go to h—"

"I could always just tie you to the bed."

The glare that Hitomi gave him would have shriveled the balls of a lesser man. She bit her cheek hard enough to draw blood when she looked up at him and noticed how his mouth had quirked up into a curious half smile. She didn't doubt for a moment that his mind was currently thinking about things that no man of noble blood would admit to thinking about, at least not publicly.

_Bloody perve. _She thought venomously. If he so dared to move his hands in a manner that a nun wouldn't consider appropriate then the only thing that would save him was her continued weakness. He led her to the door, his steps were slow and Hitomi was painfully aware of just how conscious he was of her condition.

Hitomi wasn't entirely certain that there wasn't a time when she had despised Dilandau and the Sorcerers more.

It scared her, that she was this weak from the tonic. She had known something was wrong from the way it had felt as the liquid had slid down her throat. It had burned something horrid, not like anything that she ever experienced before. Even now her throat still hurt. The only comfort was the fact she was no longer suffering those terrible headaches. Although considering how her arms and legs were trembling from just trying to pull herself up so that she could face Allen as an equal was mortifying.

Her pride was only thing that was keeping her head high.

The unsteadiness of the lift forced her to lean on him more heavily than she wanted, but even Hitomi had to admit that there was something nice about that warm strength. She didn't doubt that Van noticed, for his grip on her arm tightened, and he shifted so that she was able to rest against his side more easily, but in a way that no one would really notice. It was rather tactful of him, she admitted, that he said nothing.

"So where do you want to go?"

His single minded stubbornness was almost surprising even though it really shouldn't have been. One arm curled around her waist securely, and she was annoyed that she couldn't even find the energy to protest. Hitomi was thankful for the way his steps were small and measured. Her muscles were sore from disuse. When she finally answered him, her voice was a bit more labored than she would have liked.

"Does this thing have anything like an observation deck? Something that leads outside?" she took note of the familiar faces of the crew that littered the narrow corridors and ignored their stares. If she didn't know any better then she would have guessed that she was on Allen's ship.

Which, now that she thought about it, made perfect sense. Why would Allen use any other airship but his own? However, it was that fact that puzzled her as Van continued to slowly guide her down the corridors. Hitomi didn't even know where they were going, but she had a terrible feeling that it wasn't anywhere near Freid.

That thought alone was enough to cause panic to unfurl in her gut. The agreement that she had meted out with Duke Mahad was that they would grant her full and unconditioned sanctuary on the condition that she reveal everything she knew about Zaibach and how best they would move. Obviously it wasn't an agreement that would cause her to lose a great deal of sleep.

The Duke had sworn on the very life of his son and the secret that the Emperor did not yet know about—one of the few secrets that she had managed to keep safely hidden.

Yet, here she was, on an Asturian airship heading for who knows where.

Hitomi had a very distinct feeling that when she actually found out where the airship was heading that she was not going to be pleased.

Van led her up a ramp and there was a hiss and a metallic groan as the doors slowly slid open. She couldn't stop herself from flinching back at the sudden blast of cold air and she shivered. The outside air had more bite to it than she expected and made her almost wish that she hadn't changed out of the dress that she had been changed into—if Allen had anything to do with that then she was going to slug him. The material of the tunic and breeches were much too thin.

A sudden warmth that spread over her shoulders had her looking at Van in surprise. He was staring straight ahead, almost as if he was refusing to look at her, but his cheeks were tinged with a faint blush. Absently she reached to touch the material that he had draped over her. Even though the material was obviously wool, it was softer than anything she had ever touched before. It was a deep midnight blue and Hitomi had a feeling that if she were to remove the shawl that she would see Fanelia's royal crest in gold thread.

Maybe it was the biting coldness of the wind but Hitomi felt something prick at the corners of her eyes.

He guided her slowly, mindful enough of her weakness that it was starting to annoy her, stopping only when they reached the rail at the edge. Her eyes widened at the scenery before her and that feeling of unease turned to ice at the sight of the large sprawling mountains. She didn't dare to look at Van, and she didn't have to, to know that he was watching her reaction. It was with great difficulty that she kept her face expressionless as she stared at the mountains that she knew protected Fanelia's capital.

By the Goddess, what was going to happen to her?

* * *

_Van's experience with medics, healers, and doctors had never been overly pleasant, but he found himself actually liking Princess Millerna's old teacher. He was everything that Van would have expected in an old weapons master. The man was well past his expiration date and to call him old and cantankerous would have been to put it mildly. His hands were calloused and cracked, and he kept on rubbing a thick lotion over his knuckles to stem the blood that wept from the cracked skin. He had nearly ordered Van from the room while he prodded and poked at Hitomi, but then decided that it would perhaps be __a great deal __more trouble than it was worth, so he had allowed the young King to stay and watch from one corner as long as he didn't get in the way._

_Some of the instruments that the old man used were rather wicked looking, and it had taken__ a__ great effort for Van to stop himself from moving forward and wrenching the instruments out of the old man's hand. Fortunately, for all of the pointy strangeness of the instruments, it didn't elicit a single sign of discomfort from Hitomi. Whatever the old man's surprisingly sharp eyes took in, it didn't seem to be too dangerous for it wasn't until the old healer had his assistants carefully carry Hitomi onto the Crusade that the man took him aside and bothered to explain what it was that he had seen. The serious line that those shriveled lips were pressed into had Van's heart skipping a bit with worry._

"_I have grave news, Your Majesty." The old man's black eyes were serious and Van swallowed thickly. "Yes, very grave news indeed, concerning your lady." _

_Van was too worried to notice the exact phrasing of the man's words or the way the faintest of twitches on the mouth betrayed amusement. The old healer 'harumphed', his hands clasped behind his back, and all traces of amusement disappeared._

"_At this point it would be perilous indeed to Lady Hitomi if you two were to continue any more of your…activities."_

_Van only blinked at him, not quite understanding what it was that the man was saying. "I'm sorry?"_

"_A horizontal dance may be more than a bit draining of her. No more thrusting."_

_Maybe it was the fact that the old man had to so blatantly spell it out, or that only days prior Van's mind had been heading in exactly in that direction.__Whatever the cause of it, the young king couldn't stop his face from flushing dark enough to match Merle's vivid hair. _

_The healer let out a hearty laugh as Van continued to do a wonderful impersonation of a fish, and clapped him on the shoulder._

"_No need to worry so much, Lord Fanelia. The lady will be hale__and healthy in no time. Just make sure she gets plenty of rest, and that she doesn't drink anything too acidic. Sir Allen has a list of appropriate foods and drinks that she is to be given until the lining of her throat is healed. It seems her seizures were more stress related than anything else._

_

* * *

_

Van felt a bit like an idiot.

Pride and the fact that if Allen knew what he was thinking, that he would never hear the end of it was the only thing that was stopping him from grinning like a moron. He had known that it probably wasn't the most intelligent thing that he could have said, when he asked Hitomi if she would rather he tied her to the bed—not to mention that it had brought all sort of delicious mental images to mind—so he was more than a little surprised when Hitomi had swallowed her pride and allowed him to support as he took her to the air that she so desperately craved.

He didn't doubt that her current weakness was the only reason why she sagged against him so heavily. The slight tremors that he could feel as he held her hand and pressed her against his side were more than a slight worrisome. If the Emperor was using her visions to give him the edge in the war, then he highly doubted that Dilandau wouldn't have taken advantage of that in Palas.

Van made sure not to move faster than he thought she was capable of handling, as he remembered when he had found her in that alley shortly before she had collapsed. He knew that she was more than capable of taking care of her own body, her prowess as a fighter only served to prove that. So that raw pain he had seen then made no sense.

Besides he still couldn't forget the way she had convulsed earlier as she had fallen.

The unpleasant memory caused him to unconsciously tighten the hold he had on her waist which of course only earned him a glare and a rather painful pinch. Fighting the urge to pull his hand away and shake away the sharp pain, instead he tightened his grip around her waist.

She could glare at him all she wanted, but Van knew that Hitomi wouldn't have been too pleased if he let her just collapse. Especially with so many of Allen's men watching.

There was a stiffness in the way she held herself that told him she was almost painfully aware of _both_ facts.

Hitomi was completely and utterly at his mercy. Now that was a thought that didn't quite sit well with him. The questions, _how can use your gift when you know it will get people killed, why did you just decide to seek out help now_, or—more importantly—_who the hell are you?!_

Still having her weakly, and more importantly unresistingly, pressed against his side was just enough to push the thoughts that were crowding his mind into a dark corner and just relish in the soft feel of her. Unless Hitomi was going to bring it up he had absolutely no intention to mention any of those issues until they were safely on the ground.

Glancing down at her, he was unsurprised with how pale she was, but given with how her brow was furrowed he had a feeling that it had absolutely nothing to do with her apparent weakness. Tightening his grip around her shoulders and waist carefully, he led her down the metal steps that led to the part of the hold that held Escaflowne. Next to the hatch that the guymelefs used and up a winding step of some more metal stairs was a small balcony that would suit his purposes perfectly. He ignored the almost lecherous grin that Gaddess gave them as Allen's second in command approached them and handed Van a blue shawl. He secured the heavy wool in the crook under his arm and concentrated on figuring out on how he would help Hitomi up those steps without actually appearing to do so.

Van felt her tremble as he guided her up the first step, and her hand gripped the arm that was wrapped around her waist, almost as if Hitomi was trying to steady herself. He tightened his grip around her waist when she nearly stumbled as her legs almost gave way. Fighting the urge to ask for permission to carry her up the rest of the stairs—he really didn't want to fight her any more—he tightened his grip and helped her up the rest of the steps.

The sound of the doors was heavily grating as they slid open, but the wind—almost cold instead of cool—was soothing against his skin.

Hitomi's sudden flinch backwards and the way she wrapped her arms around herself made him thankful that Gaddess had given him his mother's shawl. It was something that he never left Fanelia without, even if that probably wasn't the most intelligent thing to do, especially when he was trying to keep a low profile, but it was warm and there was something comforting about bringing a little piece of home with him as he did everything he could to fight against Zaibach. He didn't even think about it as he settled the warm material over her shoulders.

His cheeks grew a little warm when she looked up at him, her green eyes too bright, her gaze inquiring. She pulled at the fringed edges of the shawl, and he didn't miss the way she curiously fingered the material. Hitomi was the one to avert her gaze before she took her first hesitant steps toward the edge.

For a moment all he could do was stare at the way her hair seemed to burn a faded gold in the sunlight, gleaming as the wind tugged at it.

She took several halting steps towards the metal railing that boarded the edge. She placed a hand to rest on the rail and her eyes went wide as she took in the miles of mountains before them. It wouldn't take much longer for them to reach the capital, Van realized, maybe a couple of hours at most.

He swallowed uncomfortably as he watched Hitomi's lower lip tremble and he really didn't like that suspicious sheen in her eyes. She tugged at the woolen shawl, wrapping it closer around her shoulders but he knew with an absolute certainty that it didn't have to do with the cold of the open air and the way the wind stung their bare skin. She turned her attention to the horizon and he followed her gaze.

The silence was uncomfortable and he had to clench his hands to fight the urge to pull her close as he watched her. He wasn't sure how he knew but there was something about the way she held herself that just seemed too damn breakable. He had this horrible feeling that if he said or did something wrong then she would shatter.

He was having a very difficult time with the fact that this very fragile woman was the same person who had saved his life. When Hitomi finally spoke her voice was thin and weak.

"What's going to happen to me?"

Van stepped up to the railing next to her, gazing at the tall mountains that surrounded his palace that were slowly coming into view. He didn't like the way she flinched and her grip on the blue shawl became white knuckled. Why was she so terrified?

He didn't like having to be so cautious with her but he knew that he had very little choice in the matter. He couldn't force the answer that his allies had alluded to from her. He certainly had no idea how he could treat her once they arrived. Most likely Balgus would be the one that he could hand her to. At least, for now, he had no intention of telling any of his advisors just who Hitomi was. He just only hoped that Merle understood his reasoning and would keep her word. He had originally wanted her to be the one to attend to Hitomi, but with Hitomi looking so weak and with Merle being so _angry_ he really had very little choice in the matter.

At least Balgus, even after he knew the truth, wouldn't judge Hitomi. The man had been a constant source of comfort after Folken had disappeared, and would most likely be more attuned to what it was that she needed.

"I have decided to grant you sanctuary." He finally said.

"Why?" She continued to watch as the mountains get closer.

Van watched her out of the corner of his eyes in a half ditch attempt to try and gauge her emotions. With the exception of that suspicious sheen to her emerald eyes that she would undoubtedly try to brush off as a result of the stinging and the way her mouth was partially opened, as if breathing was a bit difficult for her at the moment, her face was completely expressionless. There was nothing that could help gauge what mood she was in, and he wasn't completely sure if she wouldn't snap at him if he said it was because he wanted to protect her. Her lips, he noted, were chapped, and her arms seemed to be shaking with fine tremors. It appeared that the shawl she had been provided with wasn't as thick as it looked.

The lines of exhaustion were still evident in the corners of her eyes and he really wanted nothing more than to get her back inside the airship.

Although this time it would be more preferable to have her sleep in his quarters rather then Allen's. Even if they were more comfortable.

In the end, the young King settled for a response that he would have given any exiled warrior that had saved his life. It occurred to him for the first time, as he watched her fight against her obvious exhaustion, that maybe it wasn't an entirely inaccurate comparison.

"You saved my life." He said simply. "I made a foolish mistake and left myself open for…Dilandau's attack." Van hadn't expected to have such difficulty speaking that name. "Fanelia would be without a king if it hadn't been for you, Hitomi." He didn't add that the alliance that was slowly starting to form against Zaibach would have fallen quite heavily as a result. Instead he allowed himself the pleasure of studying her as she turned wide eyed in his direction.

"King? King?" She echoed duly. "You're Fanelia's King? But I thought…"

"Only recently crowned." Van said dryly. "I haven't had time to complete the rites that come when one ascends the throne. I still rely on my father's blood pact in order to operate Escaflowne, and I have difficulties with it. I plan on completing it after we get you settled." He couldn't stop the way his mouth quirked up in amusement at the stunned look on her face.

Van turned from the view just in time to see the woolen shawl get swept from Hitomi's shoulder. He felt more than just a bit of alarm when he noticed her eyes seemed a bit too bright and her skin was flushed. He barely had time to move and gather her into her arms despite a half uttered, "Stop," before her eyes were rolling into the back of her head. Hitomi slumped back, her head resting on his chest, before her body went completely limp as she collapsed.

* * *

Ok, it looks like I will be delving into my repressed inner romantic with this part of KRL. It's such a _shame_ that the tonic is going to be lingering in Hitomi's system for a couple of chapters and will leave with no choice but to rely on a male for support.

The following crack drabble is dedicated to my kohei and beta for her inspiration:

**The Wrong Color **

When Hitomi had first received word that Allen had arrived as part of the emissary sent by Asturia she had promptly searched out the nearest wall to bang her head against. Repeatedly. The calmness of the past few months had been very nice, even she could admit that much, but it was getting to the point where if she had to hear one more pointed comment about her marital status then she was going to have to cut something. Into several small pieces. kk

As soon as she got her mithrodin back from Balgus.

Surprisingly though Allen had said nothing, except for maybe one muttered comment that he didn't think anyone could hear about the sexual tension between her and Van being so thick you could cut it with a knife. For the most part she avoided him, and since she technically had no official status—any rumors that she was secretly Van's lover were always quickly and brutally squashed—and she had no problems on not laying claim to any titles that she was technically in her right to request.

So for the majority of his visit, life in the Fanelian palace had continued for her as normal. She generally avoided everyone, practiced her sword work in the mornings (of course, that was only when she was able to steal her weapons back from Balgus), and tried to make peace with Merle on those rare occasions when the tigre was forced to suffer her presence.

All in all it was a rather strained existence and every day she found herself fervently wishing for some way to get to Freid. At least if she was living there it would be in secrecy and it wouldn't be in the presence of nobles who thought she was, at best, a traitor to the crown that she had once held.

It was on a particular day, when she had snuck out onto the blue, tiled roof of the palace that overlooked the garden to take a nice nap, when she, Van, and Merle discovered something particular about the Caeli Knight that neither of them had ever wished to find out. Ever.

"I found her, Van-sama!" Merle's voice had an edge to it that clearly indicated that she wished that it hadn't been the case.

Hitomi ignored the high pitched voice and the sound of two pairs of feet stepping carefully over the railing of the palace and touch the blue shingles. The warmth of the sun was pleasant against her skin, and she would be damned if she left it anytime soon. Breathing in the sweet mountain air, Hitomi hooked her ankle on left knee, not caring how scandalous it looked from below.

"Hitomi." Van's voice was a little husky, and she was very proud that she was able to ignore it. She kept her eyes closed when his boots scraped against the shingles next to her elbow. It was only when he gave out a slightly annoyed sigh that she even deigned to answer him.

"What is it, Van?"

"You can't avoid this forever, you need to address it sooner or later."

The exiled princess stayed silent, giving no indication that she even knew what he was talking about. Van allowed his eyes to slide over her form appreciatively, noting with approval at the way her caramel brown hair was now loose of the braid that she had grown accustomed to wearing it in lately. The midday sun caused the silky locks to burn almost bronze in the light. Merle would hate him for the comparison but the way that Hitomi was sprawled out on the roof reminded him very much of the tigre when she was young and prone to lying around like a lazy cat.

"There's nothing that needs to be addressed Van."

The King let out a soft sigh, and felt the familiarities of an old argument starting to give rise.

XXX

"That's enough, Van!"

The beginning sign of tears and the way her voice was shook slightly was enough to make Van feel guilty, but Balgus had told him that he couldn't let this matter go, and as much as Hitomi wanted to avoid it, Balgus was right.

She was just opening her door when Van and Merle caught up with her, the young King's hand wrapped around her bicep to get her to _stop_. Hitomi froze when she slid open her door, but it had nothing to do with the words and excuses that were coming from Van, because at the moment her brain really wasn't processing them.

In fact it really couldn't.

When they realized that she wasn't paying attention to a word that Van was saying both Merle and Van turned their attention to what had captivated Hitomi…and went stock still. All of them had always suspected it, on some level…but to actually see it…

Hitomi knew she should have made some kind of outraged protest but she just couldn't find the words.

By her dressing table, where she kept all of the makeup and perfumes that Van had given her and Surreal had smuggled into the castle was Allen. Only he didn't look like the annoying knight that they knew.

His fair hair was curlier then usual, with a slight wave that was actually quite becoming. Instead of wearing his normal uniform, Allen was instead swathed in a gown of golden silk that Van had specifically commissioned for Hitomi. The silk was stretched just a little too tightly across the chest, and it became apparently obvious that the dress was now ruined. Just that sight alone was enough to cause them to freeze and stare at Allen, who was staring right back, but Hitomi's eyes were riveted on the small tube that was clutched in the knight's frozen hand.

It was then that Hitomi realized that peach _really_ wasn't Allen's color.

* * *

We all know that, deep down, we suspected him to have crossdressing tendencies. Yeah, I am so making this KRL canon. Expect future references.

**From the Office of My Beta: **Oh dear. *picks up phone* Hello? Is that Kawamori-san? Yes, she's done it again. Could _you_ do something for once? It's your fault you know.


	4. Safe Territory

**The King's Relucatant Lover  
Fanelia**

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* * *

**

**Chapter Three  
Safe Territory**

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* * *

**

For the first time in a while Van found himself fervently wishing for the chaos of a battlefield as he settled into the polished wood of the Fanelian throne. He really hated this thing, and if it wasn't for the fact that Balgus always insisted on formality then he would have had the thing burned into firewood and commissioned another throne that didn't make his back hurt. Already he could feel a headache starting to build as he listened to his chief advisor give a report on what he had missed while he was in Asturia.

"Zaibach is directing all of their forces away from our border for the time being and it has given us time to fortify our defenses."

His eyes burned from being awake for too many hours, and he was terribly hungry. Thankfully, this was the last round of reports that he needed to listen to and once they were done he could escape to the kitchens for some food before heading to bed.

"Do we know the cause?"

"There are rumors of unrest on the main island of Veshrane. There are rumors of a resistance that are trying to take back their land."

"For the crown princess?" Despite the way his head pounded from the exhaustion that was starting to creep up on him this was something that he needed to pay attention to.

"It's uncertain, and these rumors are sketchy at best. However, it doesn't appear to be that way."

For some reason Van found his mind wandering back to that one refugee that he and Hitomi had come across and remembering her strange reaction to Hitomi.

"The rumors talk of a woman named Surreal as the head of the resistance."

"Surreal?" That wasn't a name that he was familiar with.

"That is the rumor sire. Currently our spies over there are trying to discover if there is any merit to them. They have yet to report back."

"Find out everything you can. Veshrane's navy has access to waters that few airships can travel over. If you can restore the crown princess to the throne we will have control over something that Zaibach no longer has." There was an abrupt rustle of clothing as a few of the members of his counsel and advisors shifted in their seats and he didn't need to ask what made them so uncomfortable.

"We would return the crown princess to the throne? She gave it up to Zaibach willingly."

Van clenched his jaw. He had a distinct feeling that it wasn't the thought that the Veshranean heir had surrendered to Zaibach that made them uneasy as it was they didn't like the thought of a female ruling. He was reluctant to say anything. Allen seemed to think that the princess was of very strong will and there were stories of how she had led a resistance for several days before surrendering. It really wasn't that surprising. It was still difficult for them to accept a King that had yet to go through the rite, so why would they accept a woman?

"We can leave a regent to assist her."

"That's only if the people of Veshrane accept her, Van-sama." The man who spoke was a gravely old man that had been his father's most trusted advisor. He was a man that, although Van thought he was a little too stuffy, the King listened to when he spoke.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He spoke a little sharper than he had intended, and cringed mentally at how immature he sounded.

"I have visited some of the refugees, Your Majesty. Some of the stories that are circulating in the camps indicate that they have no intention of following the crown princess, assumed she's found and we can retake control of Veshrane. They appear to blame her for what has happened and it would take quite some work and support to convince them otherwise."

He hadn't considered that.

"Of course, we still need to find her first. Were any of our allies able to locate her Sire?"

Van mulled this information over in his head, a thought occurring to him as he recalled the way Hitomi had been unable to look away from the refugee camp at the docks of Palas. He drummed the tips of his fingers idly over the arm of his throne before answering. "Allen of the Caeli Knights knows of her location but is reluctant to release that information. He claims that she is safe where she is…"

This, of course, brought more than a few choice remarks from the more volatile members of his advisors and counsel. He didn't pay attention to these childish mutterings, his thoughts elsewhere as he paid only the barest attention to the rest of the reports.

XXX

Balgus was waiting for him when he was finally able to escape from the meetings. A hot bowl of beef stew as well as a loaf of crusty bread was awaiting him in the kitchens when Van arrived, but all of the servants were gone. Without another word, Van sat down in the seat and started in on the meal, nearly sighing in relief at the taste of hot food. He had forgotten how much he had missed the taste of a simply cooked meal that had no unnecessary garnishments.

His stoic faced general remained silent, and waited until Van reached for the glass of warm cider before speaking.

"Hitomi-sama has been safely quartered in the room overlooking the southern gardens, and her room is guarded as you requested Van-sama."

Van nearly choked on his bread at the mention of the room.

"You put her in the room _overlooking_ the southern gardens?!" When he had left Hitomi in Balgus' care—with strict instructions that she not be left alone with Allen for any amount of time; it was for the knight's own safety —he had only informed him that she was to put in a room in the royal wing. Although she appeared to be doing better, she hadn't regained consciousness, and that still concerned him. He had wanted her to be close in case anything went wrong, in case she suffered a sudden fit.

Not to mention he wanted to be nearby in case word leaked out that she was from Zaibach and some of the nobles decided to take matters into their own hands.

_That_ room, however, was the last room that he had wanted her to be in.

While the closeness of the room would certainly guarantee his own peace of mind, Van was suddenly more concerned about what Hitomi would do to the pieces of him if she ever heard what that specific room was traditionally used for and _who_ it was reserved for. Maybe there was a part of him that was feeling a little smug about the thought of her in that room, but the part of him that preferred to keep all of his pertinent parts in one place thought otherwise.

The southern gardens were the most elaborate and private gardens that the palace had to offer. It contained trees, fruits, and flowers that could not be found in any of the other gardens on the palace grounds and was exclusively used only by the immediate royal family.

Unfortunately, as Van was now discovering, that also extended to any women that were favored by a king that had yet to marry. Only the king's room had access to the balcony that overlooked the central part of the southern gardens, but the room that was to the left of it, certainly expansive enough to be fit for a princess, had the best views of plum and cherry trees and it was a general consensus that it had the best view of all the gardens.

It was strange, but Van had a sinking suspicion that Hitomi would not take too kindly to the fact that she was currently sleeping in a room that was as large as Millerna's own set of rooms. He had no doubt that she would be heavily insulted, but that would be nothing compared to the fact that it was traditionally the king's lover or fiancée that occupied that room. He swallowed thickly.

"I think it would have been less painful Balgus if you had just ripped my arm off or fed me to a land dragon. Do you have any idea what you just did?"

Balgus gave no indication that he did. "Van-sama, both you and Allen-dono had indicated your express concern regarding her health. You, in particular, had specifically said you wanted her close _just in case_. That room is the most logical option. This way, if something does happen, you can merely use the secret passageway that connects the two rooms instead of running down the main hall and upsetting the maids."

This was not at all reassuring and the only sound in the kitchens was the dull thud that came from the young King as he repeatedly banged his head against the table.

"What. Have. You. Done?" Each word was punctuated by the sound of his head hitting the table as he thought about all of the different means of torture that would be less painful than dealing with Hitomi once she found out the truth behind that room.

Balgus, however, appeared unconcerned.

"I fail to see why you are so concerned, Van-sama." Van had the distinct impression that if Balgus were a woman or anyone other than the king's general then he would have sniffed. "Hitomi-sama will be safe in that room until she has fully recovered. If she so wishes it she can be moved to another room."

That really wasn't reassuring.

XXX

_She curled up into a ball, surrounded by darkness. There was something just beyond her senses, something __ominous__, something that could threaten her, but unless it drew closer she couldn't tell what it was. She flinched when something brushed against her skin, but it was soft and gleamed white in the suffocating darkness. Instinct warred curiosity until she finally reached out to touch it. _

_It was a feather, she realized, an impossibly white feather that seemed to glow in the darkness. She drew __it __close to her heart, and as she did so strong, masculine arms wrapped around her prone form. They pulled __her __onto a lap and warmth surrounded her. Looking up she tried to locate the source and was surprised to see glittering, garnet eyes staring back at her. Reaching up, she touched the face of the owner. His skin was a bit rough, as if he was accustomed to the sun, and even though she couldn't clearly make out his features she knew who he was._

"_Van." She whispered. "Please don't leave me."_

_Then just as suddenly as he had appeared he was gone without a word, and it was then that the pain assaulted her senses._

XXX

He hadn't even made it back to his rooms when her scream carried through the halls. He barely registered the way Balgus suddenly tensed at his side, his lecture cut short. Van was already running down the obnoxiously long hall, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword in the unlikely event that someone had managed to send an assassin after Hitomi already. There shouldn't have been enough time for rumors to travel about who had been aboard the Crusade, but he wouldn't discount the possibility that maybe, just maybe, Dilandau had already sent someone for her.

He cursed the traditional sliding screens that made up the doors of the royal wing when it jammed slightly on the track. He nearly destroyed the delicate cedar in his efforts to force the door open. He ignored Balgus and his demands for the palace guard as he searched the room for anything, shattered glass from the window, perhaps, something to indicate that someone untoward was in the room. There was nothing, just Hitomi letting out that horrifying scream as she thrashed under her covers. She was dangerously close to the side of the bed, he noted as he quickly crossed the room and sat down on her bed. He hesitated a fraction of a moment before gripping her upper arms in an attempt to keep her still.

"Hitomi." His voice sounded so much calmer than he actually felt. She didn't respond and continued to thrash and shriek. "_Hitomi._" When she still refused to respond he rolled on the bed and settled his full weight on her body in an attempt to keep her still. A sound came from behind and Van's cheeks pinkened slightly when he realized that Balgus had followed him, but he concentrated everything on Hitomi.

He could see her eyes darting frantically underneath her eyelids, and he wondered what it was that she was dreaming. He fervently hoped that it was a dream. If it was another one of her visions then he could guess at how bad it must have been for her to react like this.

Maybe it was the press of another person's heat, or maybe it was because it was rather difficult for her to actually move around now, but she quite suddenly went still. Van watched her intently, a part of his mind cataloging the way her mouth quirked downward and her lashes started to flutter. His muscles were tense, and by the time her eyes opened he had shifted so that only half of his weight was on her. He knew for a fact that it was not something she would appreciate, but he would rather deal with her temper then risk her doing something in which she might hurt herself. Her emerald eyes were glazed and confused as she looked up at him. When she spoke her voice was raspy, as if she hadn't used it in a very long time and he found himself recalling how Millerna had said that the tonic Zaibach had forced her to drink was slowly killing Hitomi.

"Van?" Her voice caught and she frowned. Her green eyes studied him, but when she didn't raise a hand, or start screaming at him to get the hell off her, Van took that as a small blessing. She shifted her gaze away from him and there was something about her look that was so uncertain it frustrated Van beyond all words that he just couldn't take Escaflowne and gut those who where responsible for her pain.

Knowing that the sudden passivity wouldn't be likely to last that much longer, he carefully shifted off her form and sat on the empty corner of the bed next to her. It was a decision that hadn't required much forethought, but he reached out with one hand and smoothed her brow knowing that it would only make her headache worse. Hitomi made a strange noise in the back of her throat when his skin touched her brow, but she didn't say anything. He carefully applied pressure to her forehead in a gentle massage, and felt more than a little pleased when her eyes fluttered shut and she pressed her head further into his touch, emitting a sound that almost sounded like a purr. .

The young king suddenly felt incredibly and irrationally smug and it was only the fact that he knew Balgus was standing at the door that kept him from grinning like a…well, like Allen. Instead he just concentrated on offering what comfort he could from her headache with the slight massage. He didn't dare speak, he had had more than his share of hangovers to know that noise _hurt_. Besides if his guard was as competent as his counsel liked to claim they were then they would be more then enough noise for it to be agonizing for her very shortly.

The one thing he could take pride in, at least, was that they were much quieter then Aston's guard and moved in a manner that he had only ever seen echoed by Allen.

The clatter was softer than the Asturian guard had moved with when the rushing of footsteps finally reached them, but it was louder than he had anticipated. Scowling, he turned to Balgus to motion for him to get them to go the hell away when slim arms weakly slid around his waist and Hitomi's head was quite suddenly pressing against his stomach. For a moment Van couldn't move. Even breathing was proving to be fairly difficult. She pressed her body closer to him and Van was almost certain that he could feel the slight swell of her breasts.

When he turned his head to see if Balgus was still there to witness this…display, he was relieved to see that his general had disappeared into the hall. The man's voice was soft and Van hardly could hear what he was saying as he spoke to the palace guard but Hitomi whimpered and he had to take slow and deep breaths when she pressed herself even closer. To his own mortification he could feel his cheeks heating up.

It was a small mercy—and Van was of the mind that the gods did owe him quite a few of those—when Balgus didn't return. The guards were a good deal softer in their movements as they left the wing, and when he laid a tentative hand on Hitomi's back he could feel a bit of the tension leaving. The arms wrapped around his waist were stronger now, and he had a rather distinct impression that Hitomi was _snuggling __against__ him_. With the way his back was pressed against the headboard of the Asturian styled bed it was rather uncomfortable. His left leg started to tingle uncomfortably with that damnable pins and needle sensation. He didn't say anything.

Instead he reached for the blankets that Hitomi had kicked aside in her sleep, and pulled them over her form as she started to lean more heavily against him. Briefly, Van recalled how she had felt when he had lifted her into her arms, and the temptation to pull her against the full length of his body was still great. He carefully smoothed her hair, his fingers curling around a particular wavy lock as he debated this. If it had been Allen he wouldn't have doubted that the knight wouldn't have hesitated to do so—and wasn't that a disturbing image—but considering the fact that Allen was stupid enough to risk her wrath by locking Hitomi up in his own room it wasn't that surprising. (Van still didn't relish how she would react when she discovered the exact purpose of her room.)

Van also had this rather distinct feeling the left him feeling extremely smug that Hitomi would have never have gone to Allen for comfort from something that was so incredibly painful for her.

He also knew that he had the tempted the gods enough tonight. They had been kind enough to grant him this small moment without any threats of violence and he was going to take it. As long as Hitomi wasn't uncomfortable, as long as she felt _safe_, then he would have to be satisfied with it.

Even if her soft form pressing against him was so horribly tantalizing.

The lateness of the hour and the stress of the day was finally starting to catch up with the dark haired king and his eyes were just starting to feel heavy when her breathing finally started to even out. Van wrapped his arms around her as best he could and was just starting to drift off to sleep himself when a faint sound made him start.

"Please stay."

His mind felt slightly fuzzy, and he couldn't quite place why those words made his heart ache.

"_Don't leave."_

XXX

Slipping past the security and into the inner sanctum of the Fanelia palace was pathetically easy. It was disappointing in a way, with the lack of effort that she needed to remain undetected. She would have expected security to be just a little bit better considering that the Fanelian king was at the top of the list of people that the Zaibach Empire wanted dead. That it had taken over six months to get to this point was almost pathetic, and even though she knew it was hardly where Hitomi wanted to go she couldn't think of a safer place for the princess to be. She slipped through the shadows, dropping down from the branches of a large oak.

Of course, rumors that the Fanelian King was just the slightest bit possessive made things so much more convenient. It certainly made her job much easier if the young king was willing to fight Asturia in order to keep her safe. .

These gardens, she knew, could only be entered with the king's permission, or at least that was the way it was supposed to be. She also had it on very good authority that the king would most likely insist that the princess be set up with rooms in the royal wing. The soldiers and palace guards were very good, certainly better then anything Zaibach had been able to come up with. Several times she had been force to use a bit of her Craft, a bit of her abilities to melt into the shadows better.

She hadn't had this much fun in ages.

Surreal ducked as yet another set of guards slipped by her. She approved of the stealth that the older one, obviously a general of some importance, moved with. A few of the younger guards behind him moved just as silently but there was an oddness to their steps, as if they weren't quite used to it. She shook her head and waited until the faint sounds had faded before continuing.

The guards were moving around more than she expected and that worried her. It wouldn't do if anyone were to discover her, and the apparent jumpiness of some of the soldiers told her that something had gone wrong, perhaps an intruder—besides her, of course—even though she hadn't sensed anyone.

Maybe it would be better to put her contingency plan into effect. She could hide tonight, and then she could spend tomorrow gathering what information she could as to the exact location of the rooms that the princess was being held in. It would take very precise and careful planning. If half of the rumors that were whispered in the Asturian ports were true then she would not be able to show herself to her sovereign for some time.

Time was not something that Veshrane had an abundance of and the thought of waiting longer had her skin prickling, but she was a SaDiablo. She had been taught by the best to be such, and failure was simply not an option.

Maybe luck would be on her side and things would be able to be set into motion before her month was up.

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**Ok, so obviously too anyone who has read the Black Jewels Trilogy Surreal is going to be just a bit OOC. I'll try my best to do her justice but at the moment OOC seems to be all I'm capable of.**

**I apologize that this is a short chapter. Unfortunately, it's either that or no update for another month. KRL is having me stumped, and a dark lemony one shot is devouring my soul. Look forward to something new in addition to PWP soon. PWP will continue next week.**


	5. A Terrible Dream

**Un-edited.**

**Semi-Citrus alert.**

**I know. I KNOW. It has been ages since I've updated. The original chapter four has been nearly done for a while. I just need to tie up some scenes. Which is actually really difficult because I have to write Allen. Enough said. It also didn't help that Van was being sulky. Not to mention the fact that Bound has consumed my soul.**

**So much for staying away from the fandom that I swore I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. T.T **

**A word of warning to anyone who likes Naruto but has yet to touch the fandom: STAY AWAY.**

**And no, something didn't happen that you weren't aware of.**

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**The King's Reluctant Love**

**Chapter Four  
A Terrifying Dream**

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She lost herself into the sensation of his touch. For once she let him slip past the barriers of pride and dignity that her mother had taught her to keep erected. It was the same barrier that had helped her keep her sanity after Veshrane had fallen. She let him see the her that was terrified and vulnerable of what would happen if she stopped thinking and pretending; if she left herself just _feel._

Even as he captured her mouth, the feeling soft and wonderful, she knew that he would keep this secret of her weakness. For now at least she could concentrate on nothing but the wonderful, rough feel of the calloused tips of his fingers sliding over her bare skin. Tomorrow she would worry about what this would mean. He didn't even know who she really was.

It was only when his fingers curled around her hip and brushed against one of the scars that littered her back that she froze. Hitomi flinched when he hesitantly touched the puckered lines that littered her back. By the goddess, she just wanted to curl in on herself when he stopped kissing her and started to pull away from her.

_No, no, no!_

It was like being dumped with a basin of water that had been left outside too long and had crusted over with ice. The wonderful scalding tingling that came with his touch disappeared when he moved back. He shifted and then his hands were trying to move under her so that he could turn her over.

_Stupid, stupid, stupid!_

Everything in her was rebelling at the thought of him seeing the evidence of her failure. It didn't matter that he wouldn't be able to understand what it meant unless she told him. Hitomi had never wanted him to see this. He lifted her naked form easily. She knew that if she really wanted to she could have stopped him. He was especially vulnerable now.

Except there was this unfathomable pressure that was weighing her down. It made her feel so tired and she just let her arms go limp. She let Van support her completely as he carefully turned her over until her belly was resting against the rumbled sheets. She hunched her shoulders when he lit a nearby candle and the silence that followed was so very painful.

Then his fingers were on her back and she clenched her eyes as he traced the puckered flesh. She didn't dare breathe. His hands smoothing over her skin, one finally resting on the small of her back, prevented her from curling in on herself like she yearned to.

Her muscles tensed and it became so very difficult for her to breathe as the light pressure of his fingers trailed over her ruined skin. Tears pricked at her green eyes and Hitomi wasn't certain which of them had ruined what had promised to be a glorious evening. There was no passion, no seduction, in the way his hands searched blindly. If there had been any traces of it then her terror doused it before it could truly spark.

When he spoke his voice was laced with such sympathetic pain that she whimpered and tried to fight his grip so that she could curl into a ball and hide. She whispered half-hearted curses when he refused to cooperate, using his strength to keep her still.

She flinched, holding herself tense as if expecting a blow, when his fingers finally stopped in their searched and she could feel the weight of his gaze on her back.

Van didn't say a word and the silence was defeaning. It was bad enough that he knew who she had helped, who had shed blood for. It didn't matter if she had been unwilling. If she had been brave she would have killed herself instead of allowing the Dragon Slayers to force her into Dornkirk's service. Hitomi had never wanted him to see the evidence, the reminder that had been carved into her body during that time.

The bed creaked as he shifted his weight, possibly sitting back on his way, and she waited for him to leave. Waited for him to walk away from her. Hitomi thanked the Goddess that she hadn't yet found the time to tell been the whole truth about who she was. A tear started to slide down her cheek as she recalled how slimy the sweet pulp of a melon had felt as it slid down in her cheek in what had been one of her last moments in Veshrane. She could see Van's disgust at the brutal reminder of how she had hurt his people, the hate that would creep until his beautiful, garnet eyes. Would he hit her?

Her mind was filled with so many horrible reaction that stole her breath and made her despair that she wasn't quite prepared for when he finally did react.

Hitomi was so wrapped in her own misery and despair that she didn't quite know how to react when Van wrapped his arms around her naked form and pulled her against him. It wasn't until she surrounded by warmth and softness that she dared to open her eyes. Tears clung to her lashes as she hesistantly opened her eyes. Her eyes were met with the tanned skin of his chest and for a moment she could just stare dumbly as the warmth of his skin seeped into her own.

His arms around her solid, protective, and she was surrounded by the strange whiteness. It was so odd, how the whiteness brought with it a wonderful softness as it brushed against her skin. She couldn't remember if his room had ever held a blanket that was this soft and light. There was a pressure against the top of her head, like a kiss being pressed against her hair. Then Van spoke, his voice thick with emotion.

"I didn't know."

There were no words of apology and she was glad of it. Hitomi didn't think that she would be able to stand it if he apologized for Zaibach's actions. It would have just been stupid and useless. Instead he tightened his arms around her and the soft whiteness pressed in close.

It was foolish and naïve but Hitomi let the beating of Van's heart lull into a light doze. Her last thought of awareness was that, maybe, this was a bit what heaven felt like.

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Hitomi gasped and her eyes flew open, at the way the sensations of the dream seemed to linger on her skin. A dream. Thank goodness it had only been a dream.

Pain suddenly tore through her throat and pounded in her skull. She fisted her hand in her pillow and turned her head so that the thick fabric would muffle her screams. Silent tears fell to the pillow and her hair felt as if it was plastered against her neck. Her breathe came out in heavy rasps. Hitomi clenched her eyes shut as her body seemed to shake. She curled on herself as she tried to ride out the pain in silence.

Even through the pain she had a hard time blocking out the memory of that image, the memory of the sensation. _I would rather deal with the pain then that damn dream._ She thought sourly. She could still remember the way his hands had felt in the dream, the way they had brushed over her scars and it terrified her more then the Emperor's brand of torture ever could.

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**Yes, painfully short but I hope it will hold you over until I can post the real next chapter. **


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